[vox-tech] open office spreadsheet question - dereferencing

[Jeff Newmiller]

On Sat, 11 Sep 2004, Peter Jay Salzman wrote:

> Hola,
> 
> I use a formula to compute the average homework score for a class, only using
> the scores of people who turn in the assignment.  In other words, it doesn't
> include people who get zero (I always give a point for turning in a piece of
> paper since a tree had to die for the paper).
> 
>    SUM(B1:B14) / COUNTIF(B1:B14; ">0")
> 
> I have to change that B14 each semester, depending on the number of people in
> the class.
> 
> Instead, if I were to put the number of students in another cell, say E40,
> how could I dereference E40 and use it in the formula?   So, I'd like to do
> something like:
> 
> 
>    SUM(B1: *E40) / COUNTIF(B1:*E40; ">0")
> 
> where "*" is some kind of dereference operator.   How do I do this?

AFAIK, you can't.  But what is to stop you from assuming you will never
have more than, say, 100 students at a time?

  SUM(B1:B100) / COUNTIF(B1:B100; ">0")

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